Gary K. Foote

PW: First, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your area of expertise?

GF: I consider myself to be somewhat of a 'generalist' or 'synthesist' with a strong background in advertising and marketing. I began creating radio advertising in 1970 and moved on to marketing a ski area in 1974. In 1986, my wife, CJ, became my business partner and we opened our own advertising agency, followed by our own video production studio in 1988. We began our familiarity with the internet in early 1993.

After building a community website for our local tourist oriented region in 1994, we began the work of combining our marketing expertise with our new internet knowledge to build sufficient traffic as to be able to successfully operate the community site as a money generating publication, as well as using it as an anchor for our then infant web design business, Webbers Communications.

Since then we sold the community site, moved out of video production and offline advertising, and have focused our energies totally on designing *effective* websites - over 300 to date - and acting as internet marketing consultant for a number of online clients, both inside and outside of the United States.

PW: You also run a newsletter called the E-Marketing Digest. What's it's about?

GF: Well, at its conception the focus was solely on e-mail marketing. This was in May of 1997 when the spam issue became big news as Sanford Wallace and others began sending huge masses of unsolicited bulk e-mail. Our purpose then was to provide a forum where the issues surrounding e-mail marketing could be discussed without the negative hard-line reactions that were common then. I felt then, and still do, that there are ethical ways of reaching a potential market by using e-mail, without using the methods that are, even to this day, considered spamming.

Since then, in recognition of the fact that online marketing is made up of many facets, not just e-mail, the scope of topics has been widened to include all forms of online marketing and the discussion runs the gamut from e-mail marketing to web design to using autoresponders and the language issues raised when doing business internationally. Right now we are discussing search engines, affiliate programs, client relations and accessing the internet by e-mail. Last, but not least is our regular "Question of the Week", which elicits responses about very specific aspects of the internet marketing methods used by, or ascribed to by our subscribers.

We have a lively group of subscribers with a large proportion of regular contributors. Our readers come from 44+ countries, lending a decidedly internatinal 'flavor' to the EMD. I keep my moderation/editing duties as 'transparent' as possible to keep this aspect intact in each issue.

PW: How can our readers subscribe?

GF: Send e-mail to e-mark-request@webbers.com with the words SUBSCRIBE [your e-mail address] in the MESSAGE.

PW: What do you think is the best way to promote your website?

GF: By participating in as many online forums relating to your market as you possibly can. Get your name and your business name out there as often as you can. Become widely known as one who participates and gives good advice and offers solid information in mailinglists, in USENET newsgroups, in chat rooms... wherever your target market is.

Make sure each post includes a .sig (signature) with a clear headline and simple instructions for gaining the benefit you offer. Here is my current .sig;

Gary K. Foote mailto:gkfoote@webbers.com Webbers Communications http://www.webbers.com Web Design & Internet Marketing Since 1994

------ FREE STUFF FOR INTERNET MARKETERS ------

Send the following e-mail to our autoresponder:

mailto:gkfoote@webbers.com?Subject=webbers.info

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The e-mail address referenced in my .sig is my main autoresponder address. It carries descriptions of each FREE offering available, along with a mailto: link preset for the correct autoresponder for the information in question. Each autoresponse not only carries the promised FREE STUFF, but carries an ad for Webbers Communications' services and points to both our website and main autoresponder.

PW: In closing, do you have any general promotion advice? GF: Diligence. Any enterprise' success depends on a clear plan and the diligence to implement it every day. I spend more time at my computer than I ever would were I to be employed by someone else, but I recognise the need for daily diligence and so 12 to 14 hours go by at my desk each day.

If you keep 'pushing your rock' it will soon begin to gain a momentum of its own and the pushing gets a bit easier while the progress you see for your efforts grows exponentially. I could go on and on about the merits of diligence, but instead have recently written a short, personal-experience story that illustrates the rewards of diligence. You may retrieve this story from one of my many autoresponders (can you tell I believe in the power of autoresponders?) by sending e-mail to;

gkfoote@webbers.com

Put the words diligenc.txt in the SUBJECT


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